Child Learning Difficulties

[Tranceaholic]

I am doing some work with an 8 yo boy who has exhibited some of what the school has diagnosed as learning difficulties. (I am a recent M/Practitioner)

So far I have elicited his learning & spelling startegies both of which were very K oriented & his values & beliefs surrounding learning & school.

His confidence in relation to his ability to spell & read is very low & this impacts on the rest of his schooling.

During the 1st session I just did a brief Detailed Personal History & talked to him about what result he would like. Basically he just wants to be able to learn easily & have fun.

During the second session we firstly elicited the learning state & anchored it & then installed a AD VR K spelling strategy which had him spelling words he had never been able to spell before both forwards & backwards & feeling great about it.

In addition I have him doing crossover excersises to improve the right/left brain co-ordination.

My question is what else can I do to assist him ?

Your comments would be greatlty appreciated.

[skip]

Tranceaholic,

Two things I would consider.

Elicit and stack numerous states where he already has learned something easily and fast, and add these into his learning state.

Work on his beliefs about criticism; verbal, grades, etc, so that his 'take' on it is feedback about what he is doing, not who he is.

Wouldnt hurt for everyone to have that now would it?


skip

[Merlin]

As skip said, anchoring and stacking success feelings is great. There is likely much there, such as successful shoe tying, bicycle riding, etc.

>AD VR K spelling
Whether this is good or bad depends on what the AD VR K is.
Is AD just stating the word, or is it phonetics?

>My question is what else can I do to assist him ?

We're still at a disadvantage, not knowing much about what you elicited.

>So far I have elicited his learning & spelling startegies both of which were very K oriented & his values & beliefs surrounding learning & school.

So, you know his strategies, beliefs and values, but we are in the dark. That makes it difficult to suggest more.

>In addition I have him doing crossover excersises to improve the right/left brain co-ordination.

When did you discover the right/left brain co-ordination was a problem?

[Tranceaholic]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Ok as far as what I have elicted I will be a breif as possible :

Learning strategy for all academic learning was based on auditory & kinestetic where he first Ad repeated the question, Ar attempted to recall the answer & K checked on how it felt, this was then looped.

His believes that he is dumb & can't learn easily, he has anolder brother who is getting very good grades. His values in the context of academic learning are to have fun, to spend as little time doing it as possible & to be like his brother.

These values were almost completely away froms.

He is very good at art, & making models but his co-ordination is a bit out with throwing a ball from one hand to the other. This can be an indication of poor left/right brain function.

The strategy I installed via anchoring was Ad say the word (no phonetics) Vr remember a picture of the word & spell it, K get a good feeling.

Have you any techniques for using Time Line Therapy on children. I did elicit his time line & he can get in touch with it but he doesn't seem to have the patience to go through the whole process.

Skip you mentioned working on his beliefs, if not via TLT would this best be achievd vai reframing ? as this is a little difficult as he may not understand. I suppose a good metaphore would be useful...

Thanks again for your help guys, it's much appreciated.

[EC]

Hi Tranceaholic,

>>My question is what else can I do to assist him ?

You have already received excellent answers but I would like to add a little:

Sounds like you have done all the work to prove that he "can do the work." but what have you done to address why he wasn't doing it in the first place. Was the learning disability "self imposed" as is typical with being a younger sibling, or, does he not get parental support to make him feel good about himself? My point is: Identify where the the negativity is coming from and address it. While I will agree that with an older individual "establishing new behavior" will work well, I have doubts about the same success with an 8 year old long term. At his age he is still primarily a victim of the strongest force at any given time and his behavior can quickly change with a repeat of the negative influence. It makes a great deal of sense to just "have a conversation with him" at this point to find out why. I generally work these type situations out with very little time spent with the child. I spend more time educating the parents on ways to affect the behavior with positive influence.

Hope this helps,

EC

[Tranceaholic]

Thanks EC,

Yeh I agree that there is a reason he has generated this behaviour even if he doesn't consciously know of it. (secondary gain)

His mother is very supportive & is prepared to do whatever it takes (her words) to assist him inacheiving his full potential.

I am aware that the father & mother are divorced & that he doesn't really enjoy living where they do as there are not many other kids about. He see's his father every other weekend.

Perhaps I could persure this further, but what type of interventions work best with 8 year olds ?

[EC]

Hi Trance,
You said:
>>I am aware that the father & mother are divorced & that he doesn't really enjoy living where they do as there are not many other kids about. He see's his father every other weekend. <<

Perhaps I could persure this further, but what type of interventions work best with 8 year olds ? <<

IMO working with young children requires less hypnosis and more pure counseling experience. He might benefit from discussions of the divorce and help to create a new picture of his life now. I see nothing wrong with creating a happy post-divorce picture, and helping him anchor that state.

EC